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How to Develop a Strong Moral Compass

Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Verywell / Zoe Hansen

What Makes Up Your Moral Compass?

Signs of a strong moral compass, what does it mean to lack a moral compass.

Just like ships are guided by a magnetic compass, humans are guided by a moral compass. Also known as your conscience or your ethical principles, your moral compass is an innate set of values that guides your behavior and decisions.

Your moral compass essentially helps you distinguish between what’s right and wrong, says Kristin Wilson , LPC, CCTP, Chief Experience Officer at Newport Healthcare.

Your moral compass plays a significant role in your life. It can guide the way you work, the way you respond when you’re asked a question, the way you react to a situation , or simply the way you go about your day-to-day life.

For example: Do you leave your campground clean or littered with trash? Do you lend your neighbor your footstool or claim you don’t have one? Do you blame a mistake you made at work on your colleague or take responsibility for it?

This article explores the signs and benefits of a moral compass, factors that influence your moral compass, and strategies to help you develop a strong moral compass.

These are some factors that can influence your moral compass, according to Wilson:

• Family values
• Parental styles
• Life experiences
• Role models
• Religious beliefs
• Cultural norms
• Social influences
• Political climate
• Economic environment
• Social media

Kristin Wilson, LPC, CCTP

Moral compasses aren't fixed constructs—they may change as we face new experiences in life, gain knowledge, or cope with hardships. Therefore, everyone's moral compass is unique.

These are some of the signs of a strong moral compass, according to Wilson:

• Honesty: Being truthful and not lying to people or deceiving them for your own gain.
• Respect: Treating others with respect, even if they have a different background or belief system from yours.
• Humility: Not being arrogant and avoiding boasting.
• Reliability: Keeping your word and being dependable to those who count on you.
• Accountability: Taking responsibility for your actions and mistakes.
• Loyalty: Being faithful and supportive of the people in your life.
• Kindness: Being kind to others and helping out as much as possible.
• Thoughtfulness: Being considerate toward other people.
• Selflessness: Being quick to help and putting others’ needs before your own.
• Trustworthiness: Being honest and not stealing, cheating on, or manipulating others.
• Compassion: Being empathetic toward the plight of others.

Benefits of Having a Strong Moral Compass

These are some of the benefits of having a strong moral compass:

• Stronger identity: Having a strong moral compass can lead to a strong sense of integrity, self-worth, and self-confidence, says Wilson.
• Increased happiness: Acting in accordance with your values can help you feel happy and at peace with yourself. A 2014 study notes that having a clear conscience helps promote inner peace . The authors of the study notes that this even applies during stressful situations, because you know you’ve done your best.
• Better relationships: People with a strong moral compass are able to foster better relationships with others because they value others’ needs and view themselves as part of a greater good, says Wilson.
• Greater success: Research shows that ethical behavior is linked to better performance and greater success.

Without a moral compass, you may simply act per your own convenience, without taking into consideration what’s better for others or society as a whole.

People who lack moral compasses can be difficult to deal with because they often make decisions that will negatively impact those around them, says Wilson.

Research also shows that psychopathic people, who often have antisocial or criminal tendencies, tend to lack a moral compass.

Tips to Strengthen Your Moral Compass 

These are some strategies that can help you strengthen your moral compass.

Review Your Beliefs

Your moral compass is comprised of your beliefs, principles , and values. It can be helpful to reflect upon them and evaluate them from time to time, to ensure your moral compass stays strong.

You can do this by reflecting on day-to-day situations in your life or current events in the news. Ask yourself how you feel about the situation and why. If you like, you can even discuss your thoughts with others, to see how they feel about them.

Seek Out Diverse Perspectives

Often, we rely only on what we know to guide us. However, our perspective can sometimes be limiting.

It’s important to broaden your horizons by considering different cultures, religions, social practices, and economic backgrounds. The best way to do this is by talking to lots of different people. You can also read books and articles, and watch diverse content.

Developing a more diverse, inclusive, and holistic worldview can help you be more compassionate and strengthen your moral compass.

Practice Empathy

While we always consider how our actions will affect us, it’s equally important to consider how they affect others.

Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and seeing things from their perspective can help you understand how your actions might affect them. This can help you be more empathetic toward them and guide your behavior toward them.

Act Upon Your Intentions

While your moral compass is a guiding light, it’s important to follow through and act upon your intentions.

For instance, even though you might be tempted to turn in an assignment late and make an excuse to your manager, it’s important to get it done on time if you value punctuality, reliability, and trustworthiness.

The satisfaction you get by acting upon your values is motivating and rewarding in itself and will help strengthen your moral compass.

Correct Your Mistakes

Your moral compass evolves over time, as you encounter new information and experiences. If you find something you once believed was mistaken or misguided, don’t be afraid to correct yourself. Admit your mistakes , apologize to people you’ve hurt, and learn from the situation.

Even if you were mistaken before, correcting yourself can help you strengthen your moral compass and feel at peace with yourself. Being stubborn and refusing to accept that you might have been wrong can be as harmful to your mental well-being as it is to others’.

Bennahum DA. Moral compass in the care of patients who choose aid in dying . Camb Q Healthc Ethics . 2020;29(2):327-329. doi:10.1017/S0963180119001117

Van Stekelenburg LH, Smerecnik C, Sanderse W, et al. ‘What do you mean by ethical compass?’ Bachelor students’ ideas about being a moral professional . Empirical Res Voc Ed Train 12, 11 (2020). doi:10.1186/s40461-020-00097-6

Ramos AM, Griffin AM, Neiderhiser JM, Reiss D. Did I inherit my moral compass? Examining socialization and evocative mechanisms for virtuous character development . Behav Genet . 2019;49(2):175-186. doi:10.1007/s10519-018-09945-4

Vithoulkas G, Muresanu DF. Conscience and consciousness: a definition . J Med Life . 2014;7(1):104-108.

Donnellan JJ Jr. A moral compass for management decision making: a healthcare CEO's reflections . Front Health Serv Manage . 2013;30(1):14-26.

Marshall J, Watts AL, Lilienfeld SO. Do psychopathic individuals possess a misaligned moral compass? A meta-analytic examination of psychopathy's relations with moral judgment . Personal Disord . 2018;9(1):40-50. doi:10.1037/per0000226

By Sanjana Gupta Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Ethics and Morality

Finding our moral compass, a proposal for three foundational values..

Posted January 31, 2012 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

Watching political discourse (and deadlock and chaos), I often experience a longing for an authentic discussion of the core values that ought to be guiding us as a society. I often feel that we are morally adrift; that we do not have a clear sense of how to ground our identities and actions to ultimate values that transcend time and place.

That is not to say that our society is largely immoral. Just amoral—lacking clear a compass or a foundational guide.

Of course, for many, organized religion is valuable precisely because it provides such a moral grounding. Unfortunately, for many other Americans (including myself), organized religion does not stand up to analytical scrutiny from the vantage point of modern science and thus it is seen as an unsatisfactory solution.

Although science has undeniably provided us more and more accurate models of the universe, it has also come with a significant price. In a fascinating book, The Battle for Human Nature , Barry Schwartz detailed how, just over a century ago, the higher educational system in America taught moral philosophy , and in so doing it attempted to create a community of common values and shared aspirations.

And yet, following the growth of science and its (in)famous insistence on the separation of ought from is, higher education became a place where people learned about how the world was but were no longer taught how they ought to be. Schwartz argued that the result has been the loss of moral direction. [To see why a purely scientific worldview might have this effect, consider that a text titled, The Scientists opened with the line, "The most important thing that science has taught us about our place in the universe is that we are not special."].

Instead of a moral compass, people have been given enormous freedom to construct their own lives and make their own moral decisions. Although this outcome has had many positive elements, it also has resulted in large numbers of people, at least in America, who are fundamentally unsure when it comes to their philosophy of life.

In Schwartz's words, "They don't seem to know where they belong. They don't seem to know that they are doing the right things with their lives. They don't seem to know what the right things are."

A recent sociological analysis of emerging adults (the age range between 18-23) drives home Schwartz's analysis regarding the loss of a moral compass and paints an even bleaker picture of the capacity of today's young adults to ground their perspective in a moral perspective.

Based on hundreds of detailed interviews, the book Lost in Transition explores the darker side of emerging adulthood. Of particular relevance here was the primary finding that emerging adults in America follow a loose, poorly defined moral individualism that, for many, bleeds into an extreme moral relativism.

The emerging adults' reflections on right and wrong generally "reflected weak thinking and provided a fragile basis upon which to build robust moral positions." Moreover, the authors found this group does not rely on any moral traditions or philosophical ethics to make decisions. Instead, the basic position of most was for each individual to make up their own rules and do what is good for them.

Finally, the authors discovered that "the vast majority of emerging adults could not engage in a discussion about real moral dilemmas, and either could not think of any dilemma they had recently faced or misunderstood what a moral dilemma is."

I believe we should return to teaching moral values, and engage in an active search for values that can guide the construction of greater societies.

In my own quest for ultimate justifications that transcend time and context, I have found three separate but interrelated values that together feel like they offer a strong grounding in guiding my life and moral decisions. They are dignity, well-being, and integrity.

Dignity is the state of being valued, honored, or respected. I conceive of it in two ways. First, there is fundamental dignity , which we should confer to every human being. This value is already a well-established universal. Through much cross-cultural dialogue, the United Nations ratified the United Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, and in doing so it was ultimately concluded that human rights were justified on the grounds that all persons had dignity.

Although the various cultural and national groups could not agree on why people had dignity, there nevertheless was universal agreement that they did in fact possess a fundamental dignity, and it was from this foundational starting point that basic human rights were justified.

The second sense of the word, incremental dignity , refers to acts of individuals or groups that are worthy of respect, honor, and admiration (and, by implication, the reverse). Great works of art or athleticism , noble acts of self-sacrifice, or resilience in the face of major trials and tribulations are all examples of incremental dignity.

Thus, while we each have the same level of fundamental dignity at birth, we must nevertheless also judge our actions on the extent to which they enhance or diminish incremental dignity. (See this post on dignity .)

Well-being refers to the state of health and contentment of individuals and groups at biological, mental, and social levels of existence (cf. The World Health Organization definition of health). Although happiness is a key element, well-being is actually a much deeper construct. It refers to the degree of life satisfaction, engagement, and purpose in life, as well as the capacity to effectively adapt to environmental and social spheres in a way that fosters growth and positive sentiments in both the individual and group.

Integrity is the state of being honest, sound, and coherent. Whereas dignity and well-being are decidedly humanistic constructs, integrity includes the values such as accuracy, truth, and logical consistency and thus is more scientific in essence.

For example, speaking personally — although believing in a higher power may well improve well-being and even plausibly be argued to increase human dignity — for me, supernatural justifications do not cohere with my sense of intellectual integrity and thus I have not internalized them. Of course, if I were experientially touched by God like so many feel that they have been, then such beliefs could then be grounded in the subjective element of justification and held with integrity.

I strive to be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity. I have found that whether I am teaching, being with my family, challenging those who do not see the world as I do, conducting psychotherapy , or even struggling with my own issues, I can use this ultimate justification as a guide.

If the next generation is going to be successful in navigating the complexities ahead and do so in a manner that results in richer, deeper and more meaningful lives, we need more discussions and proposals about what can unite us in vision and transcendent purpose.

Gregg Henriques, Ph.D. , is a professor of psychology at James Madison University.

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Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers

Calhoun, Cheshire (ed.), Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers , Oxford University Press, 2004, 384pp (pbk), ISBN 0195154754.

Reviewed by Anita Superson, University of Kentucky

This superb collection contains nineteen, most newly published, papers by some of the leading women moral philosophers who have “set the moral compass” over the past few decades. The time has come for this book: I for one have found that the overwhelming majority of intriguing papers in moral philosophy have been written by women. What makes women’s works so interesting, evidenced by the papers in this volume, are (1) the issues with which women are largely concerned (e.g., self-respect, decency, resentment, and moral progress), (2) the approaches women take to philosophy (e.g., drawing on examples from literature and from real life rather than using wildly implausible, hypothetical cases, and respecting the history of philosophy while using it to teach new lessons applicable to real life), and (3) the theses women defend (e.g., that moral theories need to include treatment of vulnerable persons, that we need to assess not only the wrongdoings of individuals, but also the injustices of institutions, practices, and ideologies, and that in assessing the practices of other cultures we need to be sensitive to cultural differences while not succumbing to moral relativism). This is the first book I have seen that puts together papers for the reason that they are written by women philosophers, and as such it promises to confirm my own convictions about women’s philosophical work in the minds of its readers. The papers in this volume are not necessarily feminist papers: some explicitly are, but others are not identified as such by their authors. Cheshire Calhoun thinks of them in terms of a feminist continuum, ranging from papers with explicitly feminist aims, to papers that would not have been written in the same way had the authors lacked feminist sensibilities. I like to think of them as humanist papers, since they, together with earlier works by women moral philosophers, legitimize certain topics (e.g., killing in the heat of passion, genocide, the role of narrative in moral life), and either they explicitly aim to include traditionally disenfranchised groups, or the views they defend can be more inclusively applied than those typically espoused in traditional moral theories. Either way, they buttress feminists’ arguments for ending women’s oppression. Most significantly, this book is a unifier , not a divider. Typically we find works in moral philosophy written either by feminists (mostly women) or by those in more “mainstream” ethical theory (mostly men), with little or no overlap. This is unnecessarily divisive both for ethics and for women, since it sets aside feminism as a “special” area concerned with “women’s issues,” and generates expectations that all women philosophers (but only a few men) do feminism. But the fact of the matter is that feminism is concerned with some of the most fundamental issues in ethics (e.g., respect, equality, autonomy, and justice), and indeed, that any moral theory that fails to import these issues into its basic tenets in an inclusive way is seriously remiss. This division of areas often serves to marginalize feminism, and subsequently, feminists (mostly women) in the profession. This book, though, counteracts such unjust separations, since it shows that traditional ethics can be –indeed, should be – informed by feminism, and vice versa, in order for our principles and theories to reach their richest levels. All moral philosophy stands to benefit from this mutual exchange of ideas. Philosophy in general needs a lot more of this, and this book provides a great start. It is suitable to use in an upper division undergraduate or graduate course on ethics, and will be an inspiration to all women considering entering the profession of philosophy.

Calhoun’s introduction is simply outstanding. Significantly – and, I believe, courageously – Calhoun links the purpose of this collection to women’s status in the profession. She does not think that women philosophers produce a “woman’s moral philosophy” in a gender-essentialist sense. A gender-essentialist believes that just in virtue of their gender, philosophers will produce different kinds of work. This, of course, is false and sexist. But yet Calhoun believes that embodiment does make a difference to the philosophy one does.(12) This is because “our social worlds make all sorts of things of our evident sex differences.”(10) Our social world includes, for philosophers, our academic environment, where women have been notoriously under-represented. Calhoun believes that how women philosophers have been received into and supported by their profession affects both their subjectivity and their philosophical production. Indeed, not only women’s embodiment, but men’s too, will show up in their work, but, I would add, men’s philosophical production has been taken to be the norm, while women have had to work, without the support of numbers or high-ranking women colleagues, to legitimize certain issues, approaches, and theses. The point of Calhoun’s book is to make visible the difference that gender makes to one’s philosophical production, by allowing women philosophers, as philosophers rather than as feminists or as token spokespersons for all women philosophers, to have a voice. Very importantly, Calhoun notes that once we see the difference that gender makes in doing philosophy, it will be obvious that women’s under-representation is “a significant cognitive loss.”(12) I couldn’t agree more, and I would add that it would be a loss for our (male) colleagues to dismiss this book just because it is a collection of works by women philosophers, and/or because it contains representative feminist pieces. They most of all need to read it, since in virtue of their numbers they determine women’s being attracted to, and hired and retained in, philosophy.

The book is divided into six sections: an ethics for ordinary life and vulnerable persons (Marcia Homiak, Elizabeth Spelman, Virginia Held, Martha Nussbaum); what we ought to do for each other (Barbara Herman, Susan Wolf, Cheshire Calhoun); the normative importance of a shared social world (Margaret Walker, Claudia Card, Annette Baier); achieving adequate moral understandings (Robin Dillon, Marilyn Friedman, Alison Jaggar, Michele Moody-Adams); the dramatic and narrative form of deliberation and agency (Amelie Rorty, Diana Meyers); and emotions, reason, and unreason (Christine Korsgaard, Karen Jones, Marcia Baron). I am able to address only one representative paper in each section, tying it in with themes that Calhoun takes to be illustrative of women’s philosophy. Any moral philosopher would benefit from reading the other extremely rich, insightful, and interesting papers.

One common theme in women’s philosophy that takes many forms is resistance to elitism and inegalitarianism. Marcia Homiak persuasively argues that Aristotle’s arguments about the goodness of the moral life can reach not only those who are already disposed to virtue, but even the average person on the street. Homiak shows that the unimpeded activity of ordinary life is not that far removed from Aristotle’s ideal life of contemplation that seems to be in the reach of only a select few. She relies on an everyday case study of the ordinary activity (another theme in women’s philosophy) of art patronage, which is within almost anyone’s grasp. Art patronage involves continuous and pleasant activity of knowing about paintings, enjoyment from the mathematical skills involved in the business aspect of art, and contemplation with colleagues, all of which are marks of unimpeded activity. As a result of these ordinary activities and relationships, the art patron develops further desires for greater continuous activity, which eventually leads to virtue. In short, a person acquires more desires from pursuing certain things that the person on the street pursues, and these desires will eventually lead to virtue. Thus virtue, which is continuous activity, is within the scope of any rational being, and so Aristotle’s theory is not as elitist as we may have believed.

Another characteristic of women’s philosophy is the appeal to literature outside philosophy. Cheshire Calhoun, in a fun and exciting paper, examines the notion of common decency through the failure of Ebenezer Scrooge, who does his duty by giving others exactly what he owes, but who gives nothing more – no pleasantries, mercies, kindnesses, and favors that we expect of any minimally well-formed agent. Calhoun argues that common decencies are a subclass of supererogatory acts, the former being ones that are motivationally nontaxing (e.g., giving up one’s seat to an elderly person) and that are part of social convention (e.g., opening a door for a burdened stranger v. tying his shoe). My only concern about Calhoun’s argument is that if a person is being exploited (e.g., the severely underpaid professor), we should hope that the expectations of minimal decency (e.g., giving comments on students’ papers) become straightforward supererogatory acts. Calhoun could readily accept this modification by challenging the sexism and other immorality that might underlie social conventions and expectations generated thereby.

Margaret Walker’s paper is important for understanding the oppressed’s response to the privileged. It argues that resentment plays the role of targeting violations and prompting violators of our shared norms and expectations to reconsider their actions and to beware that they have violated these. This paper illustrates the themes of ordinariness and resistance to elitism: resentment is a common reaction of the oppressed to their oppressors, and it is a way that the oppressed can protest their ill-treatment and express the view that the privileged, but not the oppressed, have violated shared norms. Resentment responds to received threats to expectations based on presumably shared norms, and to threats to one’s standing to assert or insist upon these norms.(146) It is occasioned not only by harms and losses, but by exploitations (free-ridership), improprieties, demotions (of value), slights (treatment beneath one’s status), and offenses (norm-violations). In all cases the person resenting believes that the other could have acted differently, since the latter knows or ought to know that he is not exempt from the shared norms. Resentment calls for the resented to reaffirm their subscription to moral or other norms they have violated. And where these norms are different for the oppressed and the privileged, the oppressed can legitimately resent this very difference.

In her excellent and powerful paper, Robin Dillon argues that for Kant arrogance is the deadliest of moral vices.(192) Dillon approaches the issue of arrogance from a feminist perspective, setting up a dichotomy: should women use arrogance in struggling against domination, or should they eschew arrogance as a trait that conflicts with self-respect, as Kant believed? In so asking, Dillon demonstrates resistance to elitism, since even if arrogance might help women fight their oppression, it might be the case that they ought not to develop it if it means sacrificing self-respect – one is to have a humble attitude toward morality. Arrogance violates the duty to respect others, requiring that others respect the arrogant person more highly than he deserves, and that they respect themselves much less than they deserve, thereby denying their intrinsic dignity. Dillon identifies three versions of arrogance in Kant: (1) a warped belief that the worth of persons is scalar, and that nothing, including oneself, is unconditionally deserving of respect; (2) an unwarranted claim to much more moral merit than one has actually earned from acting morally; and (3) a belief in the greatness of one’s moral worth by failing to compare it with the standards of excellence set by the moral law. The third kind of arrogance underlies the first two, and is the worst form and the deepest source of evil, since it involves tinkering with the moral law in a way that makes the arrogant person able to pass off what he wants to do as what he ought to do, by subordinating the incentives of the moral law to those of the inclinations. He exercises power over morality and reason itself, for the desire for self-esteem.(209) I believe that this best explains the arrogance involved in privilege. Were women to become arrogant in this way, they would likely turn into oppressors themselves, and lose self-respect. They can, though, become superior to oppressive social norms, as long as they do so in a self-respecting way.

Diana Meyers’ insightful paper argues that any theory of moral agency must speak to the issue of internalized oppression, since this compromises self-determination. Agents who internalize their oppression act on their “own” values and preferences, but at the same time perpetuate their own oppression. Meyers rejects the Kantian view that so long as reason can steer volition, the agent’s will is free, since rational willing is not an option for those in the grips of internalized oppression.(297) Meyers rejects the Humean view that the only force that compromises free will is an external one, since agents who internalize oppression are not self-determining. She favors a narrative account of agency and responsibility that can show both how internalized oppression subverts self-determination, and how resistance is possible. When oppressed persons tell their life stories, they are empowered, are creative about what their futures can be, engage others for help in revising their self-narratives, become aware of habits that keep them from changing, and even change their desires and so rid themselves of internalized oppression. Meyers’ paper illustrates a resistance to elitism by acknowledging the very real presence of internalized oppression and by including even those who internalize their oppression as self-determining, full moral agents.

The book ends with Marcia Baron’s engaging paper on killing in the heat of passion. Significantly for woman’s philosophy, Baron points out that the provocation defense historically has been seen from the reasonable man’s perspective, being allowed when a husband observes his wife committing adultery, but not vice versa. Even though the defense is now available to women who kill their adulterous husbands, since women rarely kill their husbands for this reason, it is still gendered. Baron argues that the provocation defense is neither purely an excuse, since it suggests some degree of fault on the part of the “provoker,” nor purely a justification, since it suggests that the defendant’s agency is impaired by some provocation. Instead of rejecting this defense, which we might think that feminists should do, given its link with sexist background assumptions about blame, provocation, violence, gendered versions of what counts as acceptable expressions of rage, and so on, Baron argues instead for narrowing the defense. It can be used, after all, in cases such as the one in which a battered woman caught her husband about to rape their baby girl, and after hearing him later the same day threaten to rape the girl, shot him.(362) Baron argues for fine-tuning the defense in ways that speak to the extraordinary nature of the situation, and to whether there was taunting or arrogant flaunting on the part of the provoker or his friends. Using provocation as a hybrid of excuse and justification reflects our view that the defendant had every reason to be upset –there is nothing wrong with her– and that even very good people might react the way she or he did. Baron’s thought-provoking paper is a very fine example of philosophy that is informed both by tradition and by feminism, and shows how each stands to benefit from the other.

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Ethics and Values: The Moral Compass of Humanity

• Categories: Ethics Values of Life

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Published: Sep 12, 2023

Words: 698 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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The significance of ethics and values, the role of ethics and values in society, challenges and dilemmas in ethical decision-making, striving for ethical excellence, 1. personal development:, 2. relationships:, 3. decision-making:, 4. accountability:, 5. society:, 1. law and justice:, 2. medicine and healthcare:, 3. business and economics:, 4. politics and governance:, 5. education and academia:, 1. moral relativism:, 2. conflicting values:, 3. ethical grey areas:, 4. peer pressure and groupthink:, 5. ethical fatigue:, 1. ethical education:, 2. ethical frameworks:, 3. ethical leaders:, 4. open dialogue:, 5. ethical decision-making models:.

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Setting the Moral Compass: Essays By Women Philosophers

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Setting the Moral Compass brings together the (largely unpublished) work of nineteen women moral philosophers whose powerful and innovative work has contributed to the “re-setting of the compass” of moral philosophy over the past two decades. The contributors, who include many of the top names in this field, tackle several wide-ranging projects: they develop an ethics for ordinary life and vulnerable persons; they examine the question of what we ought to do for each other; they highlight the moral significance of inhabiting a shared social world; they reveal the complexities of moral negotiations; and finally they show us the place of emotion in moral life.

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The Community on Friday

Writing, Discussions, Lectures, Knowledge

Essay #5: Our Moral Compass Shapes Our Interactions

We all have a moral compass, a set of principles and values that guide our actions and decisions. Our moral compass is influenced by many factors, such as our upbringing, culture, religion, education, and personal experiences. But how does our moral compass shape our interactions with others? How do we navigate the complex and diverse world of moral dilemmas and conflicts? How do we balance our moral convictions with respect for different perspectives and beliefs?  In this series, we will explore these questions and more. We will examine how our moral compass affects our communication, relationships, cooperation, and conflict resolution. We will also discuss how we can develop and refine our moral compass to become more ethical, compassionate, and responsible individuals and citizens. We will draw on insights from psychology, philosophy, sociology, and neuroscience to understand the nature and function of our moral compass. We will also share some practical tips and strategies to help us improve our moral reasoning and judgment.

Our moral compass is not fixed or static. It is dynamic and evolving. It can be challenged, changed, or reinforced by our experiences and interactions. It can also be a source of inspiration, motivation, and guidance for our actions and choices. By understanding and cultivating our moral compass, we can enhance our personal and social well-being, as well as contribute to the common good of humanity.

The Community on Friday endeavours to highlight these modern-day challenges and issues that face us, issues that we can no longer ignore and see how an Islamic way of life can guide us in navigating through these uncharted waters.

The essays may argue that the absence of a moral compass within our fabric, is a cause for concern, as it can have negative impacts on personal, social and professional relationships, as well as on mental health and well-being, and ultimately in our relationship with Allah (SWT).

Writers may also suggest some possible solutions and recommendations to address this issue and to encourage a return to the tenets of our faith.

www.communityonfriday.net

Deadline – 19 January 2024

Short Essay Contest

This is an open call to all age groups of the Shi’a Ithna’asheri Communities worldwide.

All contestants will be awarded certificates Top entries selected by our panellists.

All entries will be published on our website

The Winner will get automatic admission into The Community on Friday writers and speakers panel

HOW TO ENTER:

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Related posts.

Essay #4: The erosion of etiquette and discipline in the digital era: A cause for concern?

Essay #2: AI: The Future of Technology and Islamic Ethics

Essay #3: Challenges of Life as a Muslim in today’s world

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• Essay Database >
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• Essay on Morality

Moral Compass Essay Essay Example

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Morality , Ethics , Moral Values , Code , Moral Code , Wisdom , Traditions , Vision

Words: 1300

Published: 03/30/2023

ORDER PAPER LIKE THIS

Moral Compass

This essay is a discussion of what I feel on a personal level as what is right and also what is wrong. The essay will demonstrate how I can act accordingly when I am faced with decisions or judgment involving right or wrong. It is a reflection of myself in the context of moral values. The essay is a synthesis of personal value system and will incorporate experience, observations, independent inquiries, and ideas gained from learning wisdom traditions. There will also be a critical review of human values as well as the ethical challenges faced by business leaders. Further, it will highlight critiques of personal values and also social norms from multiple perspectives. Finally, there will be a review of Carey personal conduct which shall be discussed together with integrity norms. According to Thompson (2009), Moral Compass is reflected in aspects such as decision-making, relationships, and character. My understanding of a moral compass is a guide to decision making which enables me to choose what is right or wrong. The moral compass is a good foundation to personal integrity since it guides on what values and behaviours to adopt for one to realise the good in not only oneself but also in others as well as material and social environment. A person with integrity and social conscience need to have a good understanding of what is wrong and what is right in the society. Failure to differentiate what is wrong and what is right might make it hard to live harmoniously, peacefully, and sustainably with others in society. What I value about the wisdom traditions is that there is an inner core of either traditions or religions which are independent of sectarianism, trappings, power structures, doctrines, and all other elements that pertain to religion. What I question about the wisdom traditions is that why do issues of moral values vary from one community to another? For example, “why is it that there are moral biases, yet we have the wisdom of traditions?” My vision of a good life is the one where I live in line with the moral values accepted by the community. The main values which anchor my moral vision are the golden rule and integrity which effectively summarises my core values (peace, truth, freedom, justice, and friendship). Symbols which motivates and inspires my moral vision are the famous people who lived by doing good things in the society such as Mother Teresa. My wisdom tradition influences my moral vision in that I am in a position to judge what is right or wrong without necessarily referring outside sources. My rules and principles of the moral code are drawn from religious teachings such as the Bible, wisdom traditions, and experiences in life. For example, in the Ten Commandments, I frequently apply the principle of “love your neighbour as you love yourself”. In general, the golden rule summarises my rules and principles of moral code. If I am to express myself as who I am, the moral code best describes me. That is why I can say my moral code is consistent with my moral vision. For example, my moral vision involves core values such as world peace, truthfulness, friendship, justice, and freedom. The golden rule, which an underlying rule and principle of my moral code, involves all these core values. Wisdom Tradition influences my moral code because the universal principles which I believe it should govern sustainable, prosperous, and harmonious existence are grounded largely inform my moral code. My moral fitness regimen is evident from my day to day practices. My relations with others such as the way I live up to my virtues, the way I overcome vices, the way I build moral community and the manner in which I create dispositions pertaining moral awareness are some of the factors which constitute my moral fitness regimen. I employ these practices to nurture a personal character and integrity by making them stand out in my daily interaction with people in the community. The practices reinforce and align with my moral code and vision because I can use them to describe who I am and what I stand for in matters regarding morality. One of the moral challenges that has been a key defining moment for me was a request I was made to express my views regarding the decision of whether it is right or wrong to go to war. The consequences of war have clarified my decision to support peace instead of war. It has continued to define my character and values as a peaceful person who promote peace at all times and also a firm believer in the golden rule. If I could, I will still retain my stand against war or aggression. The universal principles of moral values which are inherent in me inform that the best approach to a conflict is the path of least resistance and minimal consequences to those who are involved and not involved in the circumstances leading to conflicts. As a business leader, there is a lot to be applied in the moral compass. The major things which underpin my moral values as a business leader are fitness, performance, vision, and code. Building a social network of shared values involve interacting with various people with divergent views regarding what is right and what is wrong. This present a challenge. However, there exist opportunities in social networks with people who have similar views such as religious memberships and other social networks where members have almost homogeneous perspectives. With power associated with leadership, there is adequate resources to reinforce moral values. Being a business leader requires one to build cultures of shared accountability and responsibility. Business and social context of moral values may not be the same. The challenge is further complicated by the rights enshrined in the constitution which might be in conflict with business cultures. The ability to mobilise people to observe certain moral values may be quite challenging. However, there are opportunities to do this by establishing a moral code of conduct in the workplace. The ultimate objective of every business is to create wealth. However, there is a challenge in selecting commercial ventures which are in line with the moral values anticipated in the society. Given that communities favour certain commercial engagements which are in line with their moral values, there are lots of opportunities which can favour my commerce. Building societies that work better for everyone are quite challenging because people have been made to understand moral values differently. This is because of doctrines, traditions, and religious practices. However, due to the wisdom of traditions, the majority of the people somehow understand what is right and what is wrong. They present opportunities to build better communities. Besides helping me to learn more about the moral compass, this essay has also given me an opportunity to reflect on my personal moral values. It has also given me a chance to describe myself in the context of moral values in case I assume different leadership positions. Beyond learning the moral values, I have also gotten a chance to differentiate ethics and morality. Further, I have learned where morality and ethics converge. Importantly, this assignment has helped to reinforce my expectations and responsibilities as a student at Carey Business School (Carey, 2014). Specifically, I can now exhibit honesty, respect for others, and integrity as part of my acceptable moral conduct in the community of students. I also understand better why the code of conduct is necessary and why all should observe it.

Carey. (2014). Code of Conduct. Retrieved from: http://carey.jhu.edu/students/student-resources/honor-code/code-of-conduct Thompson, L.J. (2009). The Moral Compass: Leadership for a Free World. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing

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Moral Compass Essay

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Morality refers to a system of values as well as principles of conduct that a person and the society, in general, are expected to hold. Further, morality can also refer to principles that help us in differentiating between the right and the wrong. For example, in my community, a person who respects other people is said to be morally upright. Contrary, that who does not obey is said to be immoral.

Personal integrity statement

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Moral Compass Elements

Moral Vision

As a lover of justice, truth and freedom, my moral vision is to fight for the poor people who have been denied justice. Some poor people have ended up in jail because of crimes they did not commit as a result of injustice in the judicial system. Some other people are oppressed and are languishing in poverty. They are enslaved under capitalism system of the society and thus they require freedom, which can be achieved if these people are treated fairly. By advocating for justice in the society, using truth to let those who suffer for wrong reasons to be free and equal treatment such that everybody enjoys the fruits of freedom, then, I will have achieved my moral vision. The story of Nelson Mandela, a world renowned l eader , inspires my moral vision. Just like him, I am visionary about liberating the universe from all the sufferings that people experience as a result of immorality, unfairness among others. My wisdom tradition of culture influences my moral vision by impacting me with the morals that are the basis for achieving my moral codes.

There are many principles and rules which defi ne my m oral code. My moral code is grounded on culture. The aspect of culture that defines my moral code includes dressing properly and staying away from drugs among others. Some of the elements that describe my moral code include having respect for others, upholding obedience and honesty, being charitable, loving attitude among others. My moral code aligns with my moral vision since the achievement of moral vision is depend ent on the code. For example, it will be hard to fight justice if being just is not part of my moral code. My wisdom tradition of culture influences my moral code since the moral code I have is exactly what my culture advocates for and insists on.

Moral fitness

Some of the practices constituting my mo ral fitness regimen include attending social gatherings, quiet time, and walking. During the practices, I uphold morals especially those that I have learned from my wisdom tradition of culture and religion such that my personal integrity and character is cultivated. Through these practices, I can reinforce my moral code and vision. For example, through social gathering, I can advocate for justice thus achieving my moral vision as I exhibit my moral code. During the quiet times, I can think of the ways of achieving my moral visions and moral practices that I should endorse to have a good moral code. My moral fitness practices are in line with my wisdom tradition, and any practice that is not in line with the wisdom tradition is avoided.

Defining moments

Standing out has been a moral challenge for me, for example, temptations to cheat in exams when everybody else is cheating. This challenge defined my character since I was able to stand out while everybody else was cheating in exams since I endorse honesty. Given the chance, I would rewrite the script of this event such that everybody is honest in exams, and thus I will not be tempted to cheat. My wisdom tradition influenced my moral understanding during this challenge since it reminded me that being honest is part of my moral code.

My future is a business leader

As a business leader in the future, I will advocate for integrity in the organization in which I will be leading. In addition to the corporate vision of the organization, there will be a moral vision and every member will be expected to have a good moral code. Every action will be grounded on morals. For example, during transactions, honesty will be key and wrong actions such as fraud or corruption will not be allowed.

Reflection/Conclusion

This assignment is important since it has assisted me in reflecting on the moral compass. This is something that helps me not only in the assignment but also in real life. I am able to set my moral vision, focus on the moral fitness practices that I should undertake as well as the moral code that I should have.

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Ross Douthat

The great tension inside the trump g.o.p..

By Ross Douthat

Opinion Columnist

This week the populist think tank American Compass released polling showing that larger shares of Republican voters said they believed that the federal government should be doing more, rather than less, to provide “support for the poor, disabled, needy” and “medical care for those who need help affording insurance” and to sustain Social Security and Medicare.

How might these commitments be paid for if these pro-government Republicans had their way? A different poll , from Bloomberg and Morning Consult, suggested one possible answer: Surveying voters in seven swing states, it found that 58 percent of self-described conservative Republicans strongly or somewhat supported raising taxes on Americans making $400,000 or more a year.

These populist perspectives — tax the upper class and spend on health care and income support — aren’t especially surprising, given the Republican Party’s slow transformation into a more downscale coalition, a process in which it has gained blue-collar and non-college-educated supporters and lost affluent suburbanites to the Democratic Party.

But good luck finding evidence of this populist transformation in the party’s current policy proposals. Consider, for instance, the latest budget proposal from the Republican Study Committee, the conservative House caucus that claims about 80 percent of Republican representatives as members. The document makes the same general pledges that the party’s conservatives have made for decades, from the era of Newt Gingrich to the years of Paul Ryan: It wants to make the Trump-era tax cuts permanent, it calls for “extending and improving” tax cuts for corporations and abolishing the estate tax, and it wants to pay for its tax cuts by reducing what the government spends on Medicaid, Obamacare and old-age entitlements.

Whatever you think of these ideas, they don’t seem to match especially well onto either the American Compass polling or the general transformation of the Republican coalition.

This mismatch existed already in the Gingrich era and in the Ryan years, but the gap has clearly widened. And across years of analysis and disputation — to which I’ve contributed too many words to contemplate — there’s often been an assumption that at some point, the basic commitments of the median G.O.P. politician will have to shift to match the increasing populism of constituents.

Instead, every time a Republican leader tried to forge a less libertarian agenda — as George W. Bush did with “compassionate conservatism” and the “ownership society” and as Donald Trump did by running directly against the party’s small-government wing in 2016 — the pendulum swung back again as soon as the G.O.P. was out of power.

In the case of the current congressional G.O.P., you could argue that the pendulum swing has been less dramatic than it was in the Tea Party era; there’s more of a sense that groups like the Republican Study Committee are going through the motions, that there’s less apocalyptic urgency in demanding spending cuts and more room for Republicans to make policy deals with the Biden administration than there was under Barack Obama.

Still, the pattern is enduring enough that one can imagine a future in which the Republican base of 2050 responds to every economic polling question with “Workers of the world, unite!” — and yet House Republicans are still putting out budget blueprints that cut health care and retirement spending to fund upper-bracket tax cuts.

What sustains this contradictory-seeming arrangement? Here are a few explanations:

The modified Thomas Frank thesis. This argument comes from “What’s the Matter With Kansas?,” the Bush-era best seller in which Frank argued that Republican politicians and the conservative media complex were essentially tricking middle-American voters into voting against their own economic interests — whipping up moral panics and culture-war excitement on television while in their legislation they were building a plutocracy.

In a simplified form, this argument has always had an obvious attraction for liberals, since it suggests that the rival coalition consists of bigoted rubes led by greedy knaves. But one might update it more sympathetically for the Trump era — when the Republican coalition includes more infrequent and disaffected voters — and say that the G.O.P. now also has more constituents who aren’t paying close attention to politics, which would presumably make it easier for party elites to take policy positions that are out of step with voters. (It might also make issue polling more unreliable, since the infrequent and alienated voter is probably less likely to have especially coherent policy preferences.)

The postmaterialism argument. This explanation gives more credit to conservative voters: They aren’t being tricked or deceived into supporting libertarian politicians; they just don’t care enough about economic policy to force some big change in the G.O.P. Throw them back into the Depression era, and they probably wouldn’t vote Republican. But in a rich society with a long-established welfare state and a lot of expert control over the economy, in which plenty of working-class voters are doing just fine by any reasonable standard, it can be perfectly rational to prioritize cultural issues over economic ones, values over crude materialism.

This prioritization clearly happens on the left: Some responses to Frank’s book noted that a similar book could have been written with the title “What’s the Matter With the Upper West Side?” since there are plenty of liberal millionaires and upper-middle-class professionals who stand to lose from tax increases but still reliably vote Democratic because they’re social liberals.

Then, too, it makes a difference that the current Republican Party is pretty obviously held together by negative polarization, a shared desire not to be governed by contemporary progressivism, but for a variety of different reasons. If that’s what binds your coalition, if there isn’t a coherent right in America so much as a fractious anti-left, it’s not surprising that Republican economic policy would often be handed over to the faction that most objects to progressive economics — the limited government types — while other right-of-center factions focus on other issues, threats and grievances.

The “small-government conservatism is fake” theory. This explanation supplements the previous one by suggesting that it’s especially easy for the other factions on the right to let the libertarians write the budget proposals because those proposals never go anywhere. Working-class voters may not love limited-government conservatism, but neither do they fear it, because years of experience have taught them that it never succeeds in making the kind of big spending cuts that it claims to want.

Clearly the limited-government tendency isn’t entirely impotent: If you elect a conservative governor, your state will be less likely to accept a Medicaid expansion, and if you elect a conservative president, you will get deregulation in some form. But when it comes to the big picture of federal spending, a vote for Republican governance has never really been a vote for austerity or big entitlement cuts; it’s just a vote for the free lunch of deficit-financed tax cuts. So why would populist voters worry overmuch about the proposals that a bunch of House Republicans put forward when they’re safely out of power?

And because, again, the G.O.P. coalition is organized primarily around fear of progressive governance, the seemingly unprincipled way that Republicans turn libertarian when they’re out of power but freely spend when they control the government is, in its way, fealty to their coalition’s organizing principle: Conservatives don’t trust progressives to spend money, but they do trust themselves.

The “Trump holds it together” theory. This final explanation notes that whatever House Republicans propose, they aren’t in charge of the G.O.P. these days; Trump is. And he didn’t run a primary campaign promising to cut entitlements, nor has he come out guns blazing in favor of budgetary austerity. Instead, his most recent policy intervention was a disavowal of his prior calls to repeal and replace Obamacare and a pledge to “MAKE THE ACA, or OBAMACARE, AS IT IS KNOWN, MUCH BETTER, STRONGER, AND FAR LESS EXPENSIVE.”

If you’re a Trump-friendly or Trump-curious downscale voter, this is the Republican Party you’re voting for — one in which the budget nerds might want to bring back the old Ryan agenda but the big man keeps them in their place.

True, Trump didn’t fully transform the G.O.P. agenda while he was president; he deferred to Ryan and Mitch McConnell in the design of his tax cuts and never delivered on some of his “ worker’s party ” promises. But he abandoned the right’s zeal for entitlement reform and hard money, he ran a hot prepandemic economy that was good for working-class wages , and he never really tried to carry out the budget proposals that his administration’s nerds produced. So a lot of Republican or Republican-leaning voters, remembering that record, trust him not to be a libertarian, whatever the rest of his party’s leaders might prefer.

But this theory also implies that without a Trump figure as its leader, the contradictions within the G.O.P., the tensions between populist voters and libertarian elites, could come more sharply to the fore.

Even with Trump, those tensions may matter more in a potential second term than in his first one. If elected, he’ll face a very different fiscal and economic landscape than in 2017, in which the shadow of inflation will make a stronger policy case for austerity than eight years ago, with a party whose elites still hate tax increases and whose voters may be more hostile than ever to serious spending cuts.

Those pressures could force a second Trump administration to resolve the libertarian-populist tension. Or more likely, they could just undermine its policymaking and unravel its coalition.

Emma Green on the rise of classical education.

Sohrab Ahmari on the ethnic cleansing of Armenians .

Michael Ledger-Lomas on the fairy tales of Andrew Lang .

Tanner Greer on America from China’s vantage .

The Lancet looks into the low-fertility future .

The case against the lab-leak hypothesis .

This Week in Decadence

— Aaron Timms “ The Age of Cultural Stagnation ,” The New Republic (March 19)

[Kyle] Chayka has spent much of the past decade devising labels for various aspects of algorithmic culture. In 2016, he introduced “AirSpace” as a term for the stripped-down, generic interior design aesthetic advanced by lifestyle platforms like Airbnb and Instagram; more recently, he’s written about “ambient TV,” the intellectually untaxing, Muzak-like programming of the streaming platforms (symbolized most potently by the Netflix series “Emily in Paris”), and has claimed that the widespread use of moisturizer is proof that we live in a “culture of negation.” “Filterworld” is the latest addition to the lexical roster, and it’s not entirely clear why he chose it, since algorithmic recommendations, rather than filters, are the real object of the book’s ire. “Filterworld,” Chayka explains, “is my word for the vast, interlocking and yet diffuse network of algorithms that influence our lives today” — and it’s the reason for our cultural immobility, for “the perception that culture is stuck and plagued by sameness.” Since they’re designed to feed the user new cultural products similar to those already consumed, Chayka’s argument goes, algos are engines for the perpetuation of homogeneity. And since most of us are addicted to our phones and the big platforms that control the social internet (Google, Amazon, Facebook, TikTok, Spotify, Airbnb, Twitter; sorry, I refuse to call it X), the version of culture we encounter daily is one that’s accessible, replicable, unobtrusive and unchallenging. Culture today is uninteresting because that’s what the algos are optimized to produce. The brilliant and restless civilization that rampaged through the second half of the 20th century, the culture whose genius spanned the wrestling guitars of “I Saw Her Standing There” to the shoulder pads of Yves Saint Laurent, has come to a standstill. At some point over the past 30 years, we passed from a world in which Ezra Pound’s old command to “make it new” held real currency to one that makes it moo: Culture today is an endless repackaging of tested tropes into the technological equivalent of chaff, mere filler to keep the grazing consumer content.

Ross Douthat has been an Opinion columnist for The Times since 2009. He is the author, most recently, of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery.” @ DouthatNYT • Facebook